


Denouement

by starcrossedgirl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Reality, Dark, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-27
Updated: 2011-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-28 06:34:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/304802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starcrossedgirl/pseuds/starcrossedgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They keep the boy in the tower. (For warnings, please see Notes.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Denouement

**Author's Note:**

> IDEK where the fuck this came from. It's dark, and it burst out of me without my volition.  
>  **Disclaimer:** Neither of them belong to me. They're probably glad of this.  
>  **Warnings (contain spoilers, highlight to view!):**
> 
> dark as a dark thing, major character death, non-con, implied torture 
> 
>   
> 

They keep the boy in the tower. It amuses the Dark Lord to have him in familiar surroundings, stripped to the bare bones of stone walls and wooden floors. There are countless wards over the windows; he couldn't jump to his own death even if his magic permitted it. At night the wind whispers songs of memories into his mind, as he lies in the dormitory once filled with laughter and jibes.

The rest of the Gryffindors have long since flown. Or been pushed into freefall, in most of their cases.

\---

His skin is as pale as glass, the first time Snape goes to visit him. His face is lit up, however, filled with fire.

"Finally got what you wanted, haven't you?" he shouts, spittle hitting Snape in the face. "You must be getting off on this so hardcore. Bet you're happy now, aren't you?"

His eyes are green, green, green; an accusation. Lily would never forgive him for this, he knows.

She didn't forgive him for less.

He doesn't wipe off the drool.

\---

He could help him escape. It's nigh on impossible, the castle locked down as tight as it is, ever-watchful eyes everywhere. But nigh on doesn't mean utterly. He sits up at night, drawing up plans, running the Arithmancy calculations, shifting and turning probabilities.

Where would he flee to? The Order's in tatters. Each evening, Bellatrix cows over a new name struck off the list.

She always makes a point of smiling at him specifically, when she does so.

\---

"He fucks like a whore," Lucius says to him over dinner. His features have lost their harried edge, but his eyes still hold the glint of madness. "Rather delicious, really. I think you'd enjoy him."

Snape cuts into his steak. Blood oozes out from it; it tastes of nothing.

When he sees Lucius talking to Bellatrix later that night, casting a smile across the hall towards him, he knows he has no choice.

\---

He's gentle with him, as gentle as he can possibly allow. He takes him in the warmth of his own room, his own bed, as though it might afford him some dignity. He traces the thinning line of his ribs, slides fingers into him carefully, first; one, two, three.

No matter how gentle he is, he cannot make him enjoy it. He is as limp as a ragdoll beneath him, not fighting, not making a sound. Snape fears that he has already been broken.

"I hate you," Potter whispers, and Snape comes helplessly.

It hurts.

The ghost of him stays long after he's left the room.

\---

In the end, he loses his mind. He discards all the plans and careful evaluations of risk, reams upon reams of ink-stained parchment glowing with faint possibility, tucked safely at the bottom of a fake compartment, warded and locked and warded again.

He drags the boy from the tower himself, by the hand. He doesn't say a word, just follows Snape, obeying blindly as he has been taught to.

As they have taught him.

They get as far as the forest, before they're hemmed in at all sides, no possible chance of escape. The blast of green is a blessing as much as a curse when it comes.

He pushes Harry into its path, and prays for the next.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.


End file.
